100 Days of Trump

Donald J. Trump has been president of the United States for 100 days. During that time, he has failed to deliver on the promises he made to the American people. On important items like healthcare, staffing his administration, the budget, and tax reform he’s proven time and time again that he and his administration serve special interests and not the American people. His regressive policies have not improved the lives of working Americans – in fact, his decisions have made things worse.

On healthcare, Mr. Trump promised it would be “far less expensive”. He promised that his plan would provide “insurance for everybody” and would increase the quality of care. The exact opposite is true. TrumpCare would result in 24 million more uninsured Americans. Out-of-pocket costs including premiums, deductibles, and copays would increase significantly under TrumpCare.

On serving special interests instead of the American people, Mr. Trump promised to “drain the swamp.” In fact, in his first 100 days, he has again done exactly the opposite. He has filled his administration with Washington insiders, issued waivers to sidestep his five year lobbying ban, and continues to refuse to release the White House visitors’ logs. The American people deserve to know with whom the president and his administration are conducting business, but Mr. Trump clearly disagrees.

On the budget, Mr. Trump promised to make life better for all Americans. But his budget blueprint proves just the opposite. Mr. Trump’s budget seeks to slash funding for lifesaving medical research, zero out funding to help low income families secure affordable housing, and even eviscerates the Meals on Wheels program on which tens of thousands of North Carolina seniors depend.

Building on his record of broken promises and working for special interests, it’s no surprise Mr. Trump’s tax plan would hurt working families and disproportionately benefit the wealthy and large corporations at the expense of middle class Americans. We cannot afford a tax plan that hands multi-billion dollar tax breaks to the super rich while middle class Americans are forced to shoulder the burden of paying for it.

North Carolinians and the American people deserve a government that will work to support everyone – not just the special interests and those at the top. We deserve and demand nothing less.

In the News

President Trump’s forthcoming tax plan will be the “biggest” tax cut in history, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday at an event hosted by The Hill. Mnuchin provided several clues as to what will be in the package, which will be unveiled later in the day. He confirmed that the proposal would cut tax rates for businesses to 15 percent. That rate would apply to both corporations and owner-operated businesses known as “pass-throughs.”

U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield urged Barton College students to let activism take a backseat to their education. The Democratic 1st Congressional District representative ended a three-day, seven-city tour during the congressional recess Thursday in Wilson. Marcella Medley, president of the Minority Students Association, introduced Butterfield to about 25 other students and faculty members at Hardy Alumni Hall.

Commentary: WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tom Udall, Congressman Ben Ray Luján and Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham this week joined more than 130 members of Congress in sending a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos urging her to reverse a recent decision to rescind Obama-era efforts on student loan servicing reforms. The reforms include new consumer protections for borrowers and improvements to the quality of federal loan servicing.

You were elected as chief executive of the United States. I won’t belabor the fact that you won with a minority of the popular vote and a little help from your friends, FBI Director James Comey and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The bottom line is, you were elected.

And this does entitle you to certain things. You get your own airplane. You get free public housing. You get greeted with snappy salutes. And a band plays when you walk into the room.

But there is one thing to which your election does not entitle you. It does not entitle you to do whatever pops into your furry orange head without being called on it or, should it run afoul of the Constitution, without being blocked. (Read more)

If there’s one thing we can say about Donald Trump, it’s that he’s unlike any other world leader we’ve seen to date. The problem, however, is that his differences fail to set him apart in a positive manner.

Almost daily, Trump tweets about the “biased media,” “fake news,” or a world leader who has suddenly done something so terrible that he must take to Twitter to publicly berate them. Notice, however, that it’s always someone else with the problem. It’s never him.

However, John D. Gartner, a registered psychotherapist from the renowned Johns Hopkins University Medical School seems to think Trump may, in fact, be the one with the problem. Gartner, who teaches psychiatric residents at Hopkins, decided to break the ethical code known as the “Goldwater Rule” in order to warn the American public about the dangerousness of our new commander-in-chief’s mental state. (Read more)

The Watch Dog response: Oh how well do they forget. Oh no in denial, don’t know any better or just don’t give a damn.

More President Donald Trump voters believe he should be allowed to have a private email server than those who do not, according to Public Policy Polling’s newest national poll.

Just 39 percent of Trump voters believe the president should be precluded from using a server similar to the one Hillary Clinton installed while she was secretary of state, which resulted in an FBI investigation that dogged her presidential campaign. Conversely, 42 percent of Trump voters think it is perfectly acceptable for him to be using a private server, despite the fact that many Trump voters believe Clinton should have been prosecuted for the same conduct. (Read more)